Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 70338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
I cock my head, not understanding.
My mom gasps. “You mean–”
My dad nods. “Mates. I’d put my money on it.”
Goosebumps rise on my arms although I’m not sure why. Witnessing Fate at work, maybe. Fate matching an alpha like Wilde with the runt of the pack–a girl who’s more defective than I am. She can’t even shift.
Fate threw step siblings together as mates. It’s crazy and wrong and yet also sort of perfect. I mean, there they are, under the same roof with each other. It would be impossible to resist their animal nature. Would Wilde ever have come near a little runt like Rayne otherwise? Hell, he’s supposed to be away at college right now, but he was suspended from playing. Fate orchestrated his return to Wolf Ridge to stay at the house where Rayne now lives.
“Son.” My dad’s tone is serious. “We think Rayne was kidnapped.”
My brows shoot up. “Kidnapped? Why?”
“Her scent disappeared on the sidewalk leaving the stadium. Like someone picked her up.“
“Whoa.”
“Sit down. I’ll heat that up for you,” my mom says.
“No, this is fine.” I wave her back to her chair.
“There’s more,” my dad says. “Word has been spreading about this underground group called the Venators.”
More goosebumps crawl over my arms although this time, it’s an icy chill of foreboding. Like my wolf knows the danger I’m about to hear.
“They’re a secret society of powerful humans who know our secret. They hunt shifters.”
I stop chewing, a dark rage brewing in my belly. “That’s fu–messed up.”
“They go after adolescents who haven’t shifted yet. They keep the young as prisoners until they hit puberty and shift. Then they hunt them before they can control themselves or know their own animals.”
My mom’s eyes well with tears. “It’s awful. I want to hunt every one of them.”
“So do I,” my dad growls.
“But why do you think they took Rayne? Do they know she can’t shift?”
“Maybe. But there is often someone on the inside selling these kids out. So it’s possible they know and hope she’s just a late bloomer.”
A low growl rumbles in my chest. “That’s sick.” I can’t imagine anyone betraying his own kind. I shake my head. “No Wolf Ridge wolf would sell out Rayne Lansing. No way.”
“Maybe not a wolf,” my mom says ominously.
“Someone scented a bear shifter in our territory this week.” My dad looks grim.
The bear. The bear who had Lauren’s letter.
Oh, Fate. I swallow.
I didn’t tell anyone about seeing him because then I would have to explain the situation–something I couldn’t do. But what if I had said something, and it prevented Rayne from being taken?
Guilt gathers in a pit of my stomach like oil in a pothole.
If something happens to her, I will never forgive myself. She may be the runt, but she’s still pack.
“Yeah, I caught that scent, too. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything. I should have.“ I bare my throat in a sign of submission to show my remorse.
“It’s okay, son. You couldn’t have known something like this would happen. But, yes, you should let a pack elder know anytime you scent something that doesn’t belong on our land.”
“Yes, sir.“
“You didn’t smell it tonight?” My mom asks.
I shake my head. “Not a fresh scent.”
My dad nods. “Tomorrow, we will all go out and comb the woods. You can skip school. If we don’t find that girl soon, she may be dead.”
“You think the bear took her?” It doesn’t feel right to me.
That shifter had a perfect opportunity to snatch me if he wanted, and he didn’t. In fact, he handed over Lauren’s letter after I appealed to him. But maybe I don’t fit the profile of the kind of young shifter the Venators want. I’m too many years past my awakening.
But I can’t exactly tell my parents about any of that now, can I? Not without the rest of the story coming out. And there’s no way in hell I’m telling anyone that Lauren knows. There’s no way in hell I’ll let anyone bring her to another vampire. She doesn’t deserve that shit. I will never forgive myself for putting her through that in the first place.
My dad frowns. “He may have taken her, or he may be an informant to the Venators. Either way, I want to track that fucker down, and when I do, he’s a dead bear.”
“Yeah,” I agree, the weight of all my recent fuck ups bearing down on my shoulders like two tons of wet cement.
Chapter Fourteen
Lauren
“This is so ghetto.” Luke looks around the Homecoming dance with distaste.
Wolf Ridge High’s Homecoming is not held at a fancy hotel ballroom like Landhower’s, but at–wait for it–the town brewery, where everyone’s parents work.
Yep. You heard that right. Another sign of the weird incestuousness of this town. Which, I guess, makes sense if they’re all werewolves. No if. They are.